Many women wear high heeled shoes (HHS) on a daily basis to increase the femininity and attractiveness,making these shoes remain popular despite the negative effects surrounding HHS. This study aimed toinvestigate the effects of HHS wearing experience and heel height on human stability and foot plantarpressure distribution. Thirty young healthy women consisted of two groups, inexperienced and experiencedhigh-heel wearers, participated in a standing balance test to measure their foot plantar pressures and stabilitylimits when they wore shoes of four different heel heights: 0cm (flat), 4cm (low), 7cm (medium), and 10cm(high). Experimental results showed that the increased heel height shifted the force and peak pressure fromthe rear foot and mid foot regions to the forefoot and toe regions and the center-of-pressure location movedtowards medial anterior side of the foot. Human stability limits were worsened significantly with theincreased heel height, especially when it reached 7cm. HHS wearing experience provided certain advantagesto the wearers on plantar pressure distributions and the limits of stability, shown by more appropriate pressuredistributions and larger excursions and better directional controls in the forward and back directions.
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